1 hour to WOW! your week–How to start your week

J CalawayFamily, Leadership, Personal, Scheduling, Time Management

weekly schedule pick

Here’s a Post I wrote a while back.  Make your sunday afternoon or monday morning productive and WOW your week!!!

Has this happened to you; Friday comes and you look back on your week and wondered if you actually accomplished anything at all?  For many years I have started my day in a certain way, everyday the same way.  I wrote about this a few months ago in a post Determine Your Day.  But a few years ago I began purposely starting my week.  I found starting my day right was good, but many times events of the week crowded out the good intentions of the day.  Here’s how I do it.

 1.  Join a faith community – Church

  • I always start my week in church

(I know, I’m a pastor—It’s my job—when it wasn’t I still started my week in church)

  • This always reminds me to put first things first
  • I am encouraged when I am around people of faith

On Sunday afternoon or early Monday morning I take 1 hour and prepare for my upcoming week.  I first review, then preview, then schedule.  Here is a breakdown of how I do it.

1 hour to WOW! my week 

2.  Review

  • Accomplishments and projects in progress
  • This helps to know what needs to be dealt with
  • What communication needs to go out?
  • Good job and thank you notes for accomplishments

3.  Preview

  • I look at the overall schedule of what is coming up and make the necessary adjustment due to the events of last week.
  • When I preview my week I can prepare myself for a heavy schedule or a light one.
  • I also prepare my family for the possibility of missed dinners, family events, or the need to reschedule events. When my kids lived at home we would have a weekly family meeting/dinner to go over the weekly schedule for everyone.  The weekly family meeting became a strategic part of family life.

 4.  Schedule

  •  Set Goals to accomplish
    • If deadlines aren’t made there can be no accountability
    • Keeps me purposed and productive
  •  Schedule the important things
    • Family time
    • Exercise time
    • Social time
    • Spiritual time
    • Mental/personal time

Keeps me focused and doesn’t let days and weeks go by without sharpening the saw (Keeps me sharp).

  •  Schedule meeting and appointments
    • This gives an overall view of the week
    • Helps to avoid double scheduling and overbooking
  • Schedule tasks
    • This seems to be a no brainer but many times when I don’t schedule and prepare my task list it doesn’t get done.

Question:  What do you do to be productive?